200 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. [Chap. 



Mv. J. J. Murpliy, after noticing " the power wliicli crys- 

 tals liave to repair injuries inflicted on tlieni and the modifi- 

 cations tliey undergo through the influence of the medium 

 in wliich tliey may be formed, goes on to say : " *' It needs no 

 proof that in tlie case of splieres and crystals the forms and 

 the structures are the effect, and not the cause, of the form- 

 ative principles. Attraction, whether gravitative or cap- 

 illary, ])roduces the spherical form ; the spiuirical form docs 

 not produce attraction. And crystalline polarities produce 

 crystalline structure and form ; crystalline structure and 

 form do not produce crystalline polarities. The same is not 

 quite so evident of organic forms, but it is equally true of 

 them also." .... *' It is not conceivable that the micro- 

 scope should reveal peculiarities of structure corresponding 

 to peculiarities of habitual tendency in the embryo, which at 

 its first formation has no structure whatever ;"^* and he adds 

 that " there is something quite inscrutable and mysterious " 

 in the formation of a new individual from the germinal mat- 

 ter of the emi)ryo. In another place " he says : " A\''e know 

 that in crystals, notwithstanding the variability of form 

 within the limits of the same species, there are deliuitc; and 

 very peculiar formative laws, which (jaiinot })ossibly depend 

 on any thing like organic functions, because crystals have 

 no such functions ; and it ought not to surprise us if there 

 are similar formative or morphological laws among organ- 

 isms which, like the formative laws of crystallization, can- 

 not be referred to any relation of form or structure to func- 

 tion. Especially, I think is this true of the lowest organ- 

 isms, many of which show great beauty of form, of a kind that 

 aj^peais to be altogether due to synnnetry of growth ; as 

 the beautiful star-like rayed forms of the acanthouielnv,^ 

 which are low animal organisms not very dilTcrent from the 

 Foraminifera." 'Pheir " definiteness of form does not appear 



3' "ITabit and Intelligence," vol. i., p. 75. ^^ Ibid., p. 112. 



3» Ibid., p. 170. . 40 ibid.^ vol. i., p. 229. 



